But I Love You
by Star7
Summary: "I never wanted him to see anything but my strength. It's hard to show him my fragility, my jealously, my ugliness" - mainly fluff, with a little bit of spice -x- HANAMICHI X RUKAWA -x- Bonus Part 2 : COMPLETE! Yey!
1. Chapter 1

**But I Love You…**

_RUKAWA X HANAMICHI_  
Because too much senru is not always good for you. Just my little something for all the ruhanaru fans out there.

An adaptation of the BL Manga _Sukinandakedo_ in two parts.

And also my second attempt at writing more simply. I feel I have a tendency to over-think my writing and get bogged down with it all. I wanted a go at writing something light and fluffy. Well, here it is!

* * *

My name is Sakuragi Hanamichi, and I have a dilemma. I'm attracted to my best friend.

Not that it was always this way. Not the attraction. And definitely not the best friend part. It's been a bit weird, although Mitchi always jokes that it was bound to happen sooner or later. The friendship, of course, not the attraction – he doesn't know about that bit. I think. Anyway.

He was always my rival, the object of my jealousy and my ambition. To match him, to _beat_ him, was my goal. And for a long time I never realised that my ambition to beat him was only my own warped way of recognising his skill. I called him _stupid_ and _talentless_ and _clumsy_ out loud, but in my heart I think I always knew he was beautiful when he played. And then eventually I came to realise that he was beautiful all the time.

Well, by the time the second year of high school came around, we had found ourselves dubbed by people other than ourselves as a _team_, a _duo_. They called him _the points demon_, and they called me _the rebound king_, and you know, it wasn't so bad at all.

I don't think we'd ever have taken that leap of our own accord. Both of us were far too proud to turn around and admit that we wanted to call a truce to our general and long-running animosity. But since it seemed that the entire school, plus the entire Kanagawa basketball league, were operating on the assumption that we already had, it made it a little easier on us. It gave us the opportunity to pretend that, actually, we _were_ a team, we _were _a duo, without either of us having to lose face over the thing.

So it came about that we both accepted this new dynamic and eventually, believe it or, became something like friends. Something like best friends.

But don't mistake it. He didn't change. I didn't change. He remained the frosty, confident, silent fringe hiding cool eyes man of unobtainability. I remained the energetic, handsome, friendly and obscenely talented guy I always was. It's just that – we didn't hate each other any more. And we got along just fine the way we were. And that was good.

But… I can't control this feeling any more. I've come, not just to get along with him, but to like him. To really _like_ him. In _that_ kind of way. But… it's not normal, for a guy to like another guy, right? It would be normal for him to have bad feelings towards me if he knew about it, right?

But still I'm resolved. I'm going to ask him to be mine. I've been mustering my courage for this all day. School's finished and we're still in our uniforms, sitting in Denny's, snacking on our meals. Opposite me he has a basketball magazine spread out on the table and is perusing it while sipping on his straw with his pursed pale lips. I steal a glance at what he's reading. An article on Lebron James. I sigh slightly and sip at my own drink, looking up to the ceiling, wondering how to begin.

_Just say it_.

"Rukawa?"

He gives no indication that he has heard.

"Please go out with me?"

He turns a page in the magazine.

"Okay" he says.

I drop my cup in surprise. The lid comes loose and sloshes coke and ice across the table and into my lap. With his usual unsurpassable reflexes he snatches the magazine off the table before it can get damp.

My pants are soaked but I don't really notice. He just said _okay._ He did, didn't he? This isn't a dream, is it?

He hands me some napkins and catches my eye. I think my heart might burst. This feeling I have… it's really… mutual. He really likes me back!

* * *

The next day I walk up to him after the lesson, school bag hanging from my shoulder, first-love happiness bursting from every pore.

"Rukawa, let's walk home together." I'm grinning like an inane fool. This is exactly how I imagined my school romance would be with Haruko last year, before I had really gotten to grips with the strangeness of my feelings for Rukawa. I had always wanted to walk home with her, but at the time I'd never plucked up enough courage to ask. Now though, I could ask it to Rukawa without any shame or hesitation at all! We really must be perfect for one another. This feels so right and so natural; it's beyond my wildest dreams.

"Yeah" he replies, slinging his satchel over his shoulder as he stands up and makes for the door. I bound after him with puppy-like enthusiasm.

"Bye everyone!" I call cheerfully to the rest of my classmates as I follow him through the door, although hardly anyone spares us a glance.

The rest of the week passes like a magical whirlwind of loveliness. We do something together everyday. Sometimes I stop by his house on the way home and get treated to his mother's home cooked mochi. At break time we sit on the roof at school and eat our lunch together, cross-legged on the floor. So cute! On Saturday we even go to the cinema together to watch a movie he wants to see. I don't even pay attention to what's happening during the flick, I'm so overcome with my happiness of sitting next to him. And after that, I walk him home.

"Well then" he says, turning to look at me before he enters the door to his house.

"Yes" I smile, standing back by the gate, rocking back and forth on my heels and giving him a cheerful wave, my happiness written quite clearly across my face. It has been a wonderful day.

He nods his head briefly, turns away, and the door closes behind him with a click.

I stare at it for some time. And then a shocking realisation hits me.

I guess… _nothing has changed_.

What does _dating_ really mean?

Rukawa and I… today we walked home together, like always… we hung out, like always… we ate our lunch together, like always... _isn't this just the same as always! ?_

Is there really a difference for us, being friends, or being lovers? Well of course I know there is a difference between lovers and friends. I mean there's like… sexy stuff… right?

My mind unhelpfully offers me a vision of Rukawa naked on my bed, writhing and moaning and calling my name _Ah ah! Hanamichi you're so big!_ as I trust into his hot tight…

…and my nose responds immediately by spurting blood all down my clothes so it drips onto the Rukawa's welcome mat. It's a little while before I regain control of my body temperature. It's quite tempting to let my little fantasy play itself out until its… well uhm… climax. But I've got more important things to think about.

Like, he wouldn't really say things like that, would he? He wouldn't ever blush and moan like that, or let me do those kinds of things to him. I really wonder what he is thinking. I can't tell at all. His face never shows any emotion. Even at the time I asked him out, he replied so bluntly, just a casual _okay_ as if it were all entirely normal. Is it possible that he didn't really understand what I meant when I asked him to go out with me?

Dejection steals over me. Perhaps I am the only one who is actually… _in love_?

* * *

On Monday I stand with Yohei by the classroom window, looking down from the third floor to the playground below. It's a bright sunny day, the happiest kind, but I really feel down in the dumps. All my joy from last week seems so horribly misplaced. It's almost as if my mood is being particularly bad now to make up for its former excess.

"Ah, there's Rukawa" Yohei points him out. And sure enough, there he is, strolling in through the school gate. As tall and as handsome as always.

"Oh" Yohei continues, spotting, as I already have, the girl who is walking along beside him and chattering, "that's the girl from the school newspaper. So I guess they really _are_ going out."

_What?_

My face turns into immediate thunder as I whirl upon my friend and grab him by the collar. "_They're going out?_" I demand, incensed, panicked.

Yohei flails in my grip. "Hasn't everyone been gossiping about it for a while? I thought you already knew, since you guys are always together!"

I drop Yohei in disbelief, my jaw slack.

_I… I had no idea at all._

_

* * *

_

He comes over after class as usual, though I'm slumped over my desk in depression.

"Sakuragi" (how come he always calls me by my family name through the rest of the team call me Hanamichi?) "can I come over to pick up that CD you said I could borrow?"

I stare up at him in gloom. "Okay."

He tilts his head slightly. I guess even a frost-fox such as he would notice my terrible state. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing" I sigh heavily, standing up.

"Is that so?" he purses his lips and shrugs a little before turning and heading towards the door as usual. His indifference hurts. It hurts me like nothing I've ever felt before. Doesn't he care about me? Not even a little bit? Even if we are not lovers, aren't I his friend? Even if we are not friends, aren't I his team mate? Then… why is it like this? I hang my head and go with him.

We walk the entire way in silence. Inside my room I hand him the requested CD and he slips it into his bag with a brief "thanks". I twist my hands, fiddling uncomfortably with my fingers, eyes glued firmly to the ground, and before I can stop myself, the question comes blurting out of me:

"Are you going out with that girl from the newspaper?"

He gives me such a hard stare that I begin to blush furiously.

Then before I know what's happening, he's right before me, eye to eye, face to face, nose to nose.

Lips to lips.

I jump back like a startled deer. "Rukawa!"

_My first kiss._

"What… are you doing… so suddenly?" I exclaimed, feeling myself turn bright beetroot in colour.

He turns away. "Sorry" he says awkwardly, "Sometimes you make cute faces and I... can't control myself."

I stare at him and can't believe it. He's never shown that kind of interest in me. For him to say such a thing now, doesn't make any sense at all! And wait a second… me? _Cute?_

(Surely he means devilishly handsome and strong and buff and manly and athletic.)

"Besides, how could I be dating someone else, aho?" he continues frostily. "We're always together."

"You always have that expressionless face" I accuse him, "how am I supposed to be sure that we're really dating? And… and… and… even though I was gloomy you didn't care about me!"

He folds his arms and huffs. "You have the mood swings of an unbalanced and insane menstruating girl. I don't want to be on the receiving end of your PMS symptoms." And then averting his eyes, in a very small and tiny voice, he says, "I do care, though."

And my bush returns with reinforcements.

_Perhaps…_

"Rukawa? Do you… actually… love me?"

For the first time, I see his face heat up with an angry blush, and looking away, he nods, embarrassed.

My mouth drops open. All my nervousness, my fretting, my miseries, seem suddenly so distant. He loves me. He _loves_ me.

And then demon horns sprout from my head.

"Well…" I grin blissfully, "…can we do something even more… intimate?"

He doesn't wait. The next second the world is turned upside down and before I realise it I'm lying back on my bed, his body over me, warm and firm and gorgeous. And it would be wonderful except…

(…what the _hell? _He wants me to be _uke?_ A buff stud muffin like myself? No way!)

I grab him and throw him sideways (naturally I am stronger) and pin him down, reversing our positions easily. He stares up at me in surprise for a second, while I look down on him, blushing and panting. Then he smirks a little and reaches forwards to hook the zip of my fly with his fingers. I hiss at the sudden pleasurable brush of contact and collapse down onto him.

"You make such good faces" he says, and I can't be bothered to contradict him because his hands are moving and pulling and stroking the heat in my pants and I'm already too far gone to form a coherent sentence. "Touch mine too" he demands.

And god, god this is erotic. Trusting against one another, rubbing together, touching each other, feeling each other both together one and the same as if his body is my body and my body is his body and there can't be any paradise greater than this, here with him.

And looking down I never thought I'd see him like this. No longer that expressionless face he really does gasp and moan and call my name, eyes hooded, sweat pouring, mouth open and gasping for air. As we move together like this, I feel in my gut this hope that I will get to see him looking like this, so sexy, so erotic, again. And I hope I will be the only one who ever gets the chance to admire him when he looks like that.

Afterwards we embrace, and then in my bed, we sleep.

**-part one end**

I may or may not write part two depending on interest. In any case I highly recommend the boy love manga _Sukinandakedo_ by Takaoka Motonari on which this story is based.

It sounds a little rushed to me. Does it sound a little rushed to you?

And why is it that even though I am writing "Hanamichi" I keep thinking "Sendoh"? Bloody epic fail!


	2. Chapter 2

**But I Love You**

Part 2

My name is Rukawa Kaede, and I have a dilemma. I'm in a relationship with my best friend.

He's a fool, really. But he's also the only one who seems to be able to tolerate my company for extended periods of time. Not that I am feeling sorry for myself mind. Some people are born with the ability to chat and get along and make friends with those around them. I'm not one of those types and, to be frank, I'm glad of it. Keeping friends seems like a great deal of hard work for very little benefit. Having to help them out with their problems, having to accompany them on mindless trips or having to compromise on what you eat for dinner just because they don't fancy Italian tonight and you do. Personally, I'd rather leave them behind and go eat by myself. I don't have time to waste discussing pointlessly every tiny and irrelevant thing in an effort to keep everyone happy. Have you ever noticed how much _longer _everything takes when you try to do it in a group? No? Well I have. And it annoys me no end.

But that brings us back to the small matter of Sakuragi Hanamichi. He's like a paint explosion. He walks into a room and immediately splatters his dislikeability onto all four walls. He's loud, irritating, annoying, and far more stupid than he will ever admit to being. Hardly anyone can bear his intolerable self-centred attitude. In many ways, in fact, he is just like me. Except that _unlike_ me, he cares. He actually cares what others think of him. He actually tries to be make _friends_ with those self-servicing and insular rats that we call our classmates. Yet they look down on him. They call him a fool, call him a bully and a gangster, a red-haired weirdo, an annoying freak.

They're not worthy of his time.

They're not worthy of mine either.

During the school year it came about that Sakuragi and I spent a lot of time together on the basketball court. Perhaps unsurprisingly our skills complimented each other, and the more time we spent training together, the better our team did until the two of us were almost like the single central pillar of Shohoku. United we stand, divided we crumble? Something like that anyway. For the first time, having a friend provided some benefit to me. And we continued like that for so long that eventually the idea of the benefit slid away, and only the friendship remained.

But before I knew it, even that had changed for me. This boy, this annoying social reject, was perhaps the only person in the whole world about whom I could be bothered to give a damn. Those irritating things one had to do to maintain a friendship; taking feelings and opinions into account, compromising on what you wanted, somehow I found myself doing them. Doing them more and more until I was even going out of my way to ensure that his needs were catered for. Even to the extent of eating the pig swill that they pass for food in that refuse bin of a restaurant, Denny's.

Yet when I asked myself why I was making such significant effort, stuff that truly went beyond what one would demand of a _friend_, the answer shocked me. I realised that I was actually being as selfish as always – my little stint of thoughtful and friendly Kaede was born of my own selfish desire to see him. To be with him. To be near him. To be able to have some kind of claim on him as if he were my own.

No, he was no longer my friend. No longer the initiator of a positive blend of happy content emotions. No. Now he was the cause of emotions more foul, more selfish, more ugly. No longer my friend - he had become my crush. He was the bringer of jealousy, possessiveness and crude selfish desire.

But, to my eternal shock, it was he who confessed. To be honest I never had the intention of telling him of my feelings, but I guess he was always the type who just couldn't contain himself. When he asked if I would go out with him, I was so shocked and so uncharacteristically _happy_ that I didn't know how to react. I'd honestly never felt anything like it before. Fluttering heart, trembling hands, twisting stomach. Not even in the intense moments before the start of a game had I ever felt so deluged in emotion.

Not wanting to bring shame on myself by acting like some kind of dim-witted squealing school girl I did my best to answer him casually. But despite my apparent cool attitude, please don't mistake the matter. I've got it bad for him. Real bad.

Even now, just sitting in class, I can't stop staring at him, admiring him. His athletic body, perfect form, his burning ambition like his bright red hair. He is rare. I don't think there's another person in this world who could match him. Although others may look down on him, perhaps it is only me who can see how absolutely beautiful he really is.

He turns back and gives me a glance and, meeting my stare, he blushes and gives a small self-conscious wave. I stare back without reacting, my eyes and my face as neutral as always. But he's so cute. And he's all mine. In my daydreams I can just imagine him on my bed, perhaps kneeling on all fours, offering himself to me, begging me with that voice of his _Ah! Ah! Kaede, take me harder! Harder! _As I trust into his hot tight…

I cut the vision off mid-thrust and focus my mind resolutely on the image of Captain Akagi taking a shower. I have no wish to make a tent-show of my pants in the middle of class.

Still, despite my best efforts, so far turning my fantasy into reality has proved somewhat… difficult. Let me explain…

After school I often go with him to his house, or he will come to mine. We share CDs, basketball magazines, play video games and then, lying on the bed we kiss ourselves breathless, grinding our bodies together even while wearing our school uniforms, both of us more and more aroused. More and more hungry. Gasping, arching, grinding. It's fantastic. I just can't get enough of it and neither, apparently, can he.

Then, when I feel the time is right, I make my move and slide my hands down the back of his pants, slipping my fingers between the crack, playing about his secret part with gentle strokes and gentle taps. He tenses then, although he doesn't push me away, as if he's really trying his best to allow me access. And I know that he is trying. But the outcome is always the same. The moment I try to press in an entry, he leaps up like a cat exploding from a cardboard box and ends up either on the other side of the room or buried under the duvet, trembling.

He'll blush, of course. He stammer and fidget and look uneasy and try to explain that it isn't that he doesn't like me or anything, it's just… it's just… he just doesn't know. But I can understand. We're both virgins, and there's no need for us to rush things. We can take it slowly. So I'll kiss him again and reassure him. We can do it like we usually do, just with our hands. And I don't really mind, actually. I guess I just love him that much.

Then, once we've exhausted ourselves, he often likes to walk me home.

And that is how our relationship has been playing out over the last few weeks. But today, something is different.

I say goodbye to Sakuragi as usual, and close the door with some regret upon his smiling face. But I suddenly get the sense that someone else is there. I turn away from the door and see a boy on the stairs, looking out the window down into the yard where I left Sakuragi a moment ago.

"Yukari, you're back" I comment upon seeing him, a little surprised.

"Kaede, welcome home" He turns to look at me and smiles. "There's been an outbreak of mumps at school. We've all been sent home for two weeks. Is that funny redhead your boyfriend?" It seems he noticed Sakuragi through the window.

I pull off my shoes and don't bother looking up at him. His face always annoys me.

"So what if he is?" I demand defensively.

My brother laughs and waves a hand in dismissal.

"It's okay" he says cheerfully. "You know you can always share anything with me. I'm your twin!"

I glower at him, seeing once again his face which is almost identical to mine, although slightly more tanned, and a great deal more expressive, and am reminded that I hate him as much as ever. I head for the kitchen grumpily. I don't like that he knows about Sakuragi. Somehow, it gives me a bad feeling.

The next day as we are walking home as usual I warn Sakuragi that he shouldn't come to my house for a while. He looks suitably and dramatically shocked.

"Teme kitsune!" he explodes, "Why is it, just because I wouldn't let you do… _that_… to me! You perverted fox! It's all your fault anyway! It's because I'm too scared of your nasty expressionless face!"

Yes, our interactions are commonly conducted like this. Some habits are hard to break.

"It's not that" I tell him. But I can't tell him about Yukari. It's just too weird. And to be honest I'm a little concerned. Because Yukari and I have the same face, then…

"Hey Kaede!" I snap my head up and see to my dismay that Yukari is waiting at the corner just ahead of us. He waves cheerfully. "Let's walk home together!"

I groan, and Sakuragi stops dead in his tracks at the sight of a boy who is almost identical to me.

"Kaede…" he stammers in confusion, "…how did you get over there?"

I roll my eyes at his stupidity. "Aho, that's Yukari. He's my twin brother."

"Twins…?" Sakuragi looks astounded.

Yukari comes bounded up to us. He's wearing a slim fitting shirt that shows off his sportman's physique, the top buttons undone to reveal a fashionable necklace shaped like a chain and padlock, black jeans over branded sneakers, looped earrings in each ear and a smile that could dazzle the world.

"Hi!" he says to Sakuragi, "I'm Kaede's brother Yukari. It's nice to meet you!" I'm concerned that he might literally explode in a cloud of glitter and tinsel if he attempts to appear any more lovely and charming.

Sakuragi is blushing, that bloody idiot. "Kaede is… smiling…" he mutters to himself in some kind of daze. I roll my eyes again.

Then, to my continued horror, Yukari links one arm with Sakuragi, and one with me, and leads us on down the street, chatting happily all the way. I feel like a damn gooseberry. And this is why I've always hated Yukari.

Even when we were small, everyone said he was much cuter than me. Even though our faces and bodies are identical, he has a personality like sunshine. While I was sulking in a corner or playing by myself, he'd always be out there being adored and petted and reaping in the praises of the adults around him. Then when we went to school he excelled in every academic subject with little or no effort. I got decent grades which most parents would have been more than happy with, but when compared to perfect little Yukari I guess I didn't seem like much. So I poured my heart into basketball and became good at that, but even sports were not an area in which I excelled over him. Far from it. Because of course Yukari is an excellent football player, and is the captain of his team over at his boarding school. They came fourth place in the nationals last year. But he doesn't like to brag or boast about that. Of course not, because he's perfect Yukari. He's almost too much to bear.

And now I see him talking to Sakuragi… I don't know what to do. I don't know how to contain this feeling. I don't know how to regain control. _Since we share the same face… will you chose Yukari over me? I don't know what to do… I'd do anything to keep you but… I'm already at my limit_.

"I'll make some tea" I say as we enter the house. Somehow we ended up here, back at my place, and Yukari is still hanging around Sakuragi like a beaming bad smell.

"Ok" Yukari smiles cheerfully, "then we'll go upstairs first." I watch Sakuragi follow him up to my room before turning aside and heading for the kitchen. I set three cups on a tray while brewing the tea, all the while my mind on Sakuragi. I wanted to be alone with him, just the two of us, as always. But somehow it's ended up with Yukari there as well. How irritating.

It takes a while but when the tea is finally ready I head carefully up the stairs, trying not to spill anything, and kick my bedroom door open with my foot.

"Is one pot enough?" I ask, before freezing in my tracks. The tea threatens to spill.

I see Yukari's arms around Sakuragi's neck, their faces close, their lips almost touching. Sakuragi is blushing. The damn fool is always blushing. Yukari is smiling. Smiling right at me.

"It's probably not enough" I say, "I'll go and make some more." And I turn around and walk out of the room again.

Next thing I know I've run out of the house and am standing in a daze in the middle of the street. Somehow I'm not angry. My face shows nothing. It never does. But inside I'm hurt. We have the same face but Yukari is so much better than me. I know that, but I really hate it. As for Sakuragi – I don't want anyone else to have him. I don't have a lot of friends. I don't have any, to be precise, then is it so unfair for me to ask for just one? Just one I can call my own?

"Kaede!" of course he comes running out of the house after me. He looks quite distressed. "Please don't misunderstand, Yukari played a joke on me! We heard you coming up the stairs and so he just moved closer and…"

"I'm not mad at you, do'aho."

He looks puzzled. "You're not mad? Why not? I thought you would hit me for sure."

I struggle with myself for a moment, before blurting it out in a rush, hoping that my true feelings of crushing dejection are well hidden behind my voice. "We look the same but… I know Yukari has a better personality. I don't mind if you choose him instead of me."

He looks stunned.

"You stupid fox – I love you. I really, really love you." He declares, embarrassingly loud. Loud enough for the whole damn street to hear him. "But… you saw what he did, and you don't even get jealous? That kind of hurts, you know. Maybe you're really made of ice after all."

I look away. "I'm not exactly… loveable…" I mutter.

It's hard for me. I've never been good at speaking aloud about my feelings or my insecurities before. I've never wanted him to see anything of me but my pride and my strength. It's hard to show him my fragility, my jealously, my ugliness.

But he steps forward and pulls me into an embrace. "I will say it as many times as it takes for you to believe me: I really love you. I love you so much, Kaede." He knits his hands into my hair comfortingly. "I even love your expressionless face because I know you only hide yourself because you don't want me to worry about you."

I pull away, determined to protest, but he's smiling at me so happily, I can't speak.

"But you know, I love to see every emotion on your face so from now on please try to show them, only to me." He's being surprisingly mature for a half-baked moron. "And uhm…" He bites his lip and looks sideways for an awkward moment, "…if you still don't trust me then you can…" he fidgets a little, "…put… you know… _it_… in me." He's blushing furiously.

I roll my eyes and sigh. "It's okay do'aho. You don't have to force yourself."

"Really?" he looks back at me nervously, "because the truth is, if you say which one… then I… that…"

He can't continue, his face is bright red. I stare uncomprehending for a moment. And then, suddenly, I get it.

"Do you want to put it in _me_?"

He looks like he might explode. He goes red right to the tips of his ears, and no longer able to meet my eyes he turns around and crouches on the floor, hiding his face in his arms. I stare at him in surprise. Why didn't I realise it sooner? Was I once again only thinking of myself?

"But I…" he is mumbling indistinctly from within the folds of his sleeves, "…to me that thing is scary so I don't think I can do it to you…"

He's sweet. He is so so sweet. "It's okay" I say with a sigh. "You can do it to me." He looks back at me in astonishment, and my face remains blank while I lift one cool eyebrow.

Fifteen minutes later and we're over at his house instead. And as I kneel on his bed and open my legs for him I remember how confused I was all those weeks ago when I first starting doing things that I didn't want to do simply to make sure he was happy. And I come to realise that I've gone so far beyond eating the garbage at Denny's. I've come all the way to this. Giving my body to him. And I know, even as it hurts me, even as he worries over me, asking whether I'm okay, that I really would do anything to make him happy. And it isn't quite so selfish anymore. I'm not quite so selfish anymore.

Finally, much time later, he falls onto me spent. I wince a little, but don't let him see. "It felt good" I tell him, stroking his back. "Was it good for you too?"

"Yeah" he replies, lifting himself and looking down on me fondly, brushing my fringe away from my eyes. "Really good." He blushes again.

"I'm glad" I say softly, and I am. So, so glad. Knowing that I am the only one who can do this to him. And then, a little hesitantly I smile up at him. Its difficult at first, but soon it feels easier, coaxing my lips into that sensual curl. I smile because he asked me to show him all my expressions. He looks astonished.

"Let's do it one more time" I suggest coyly.

Meanwhile…

Yukari has one text message: _I'm staying over at Sakuragi's house tonight. Take care -Kaede._

The attractive soccer forward throws the phone across the room enraged. "How dare that ugly, stupid monkey do such a thing to my beautiful Kaede!"

~end (for now)

AN: And so ends the first two chapters of _Sukinandakedo_ by Takaoka Motonari. There are more, but they haven't been translated into English and I can't read Japanese. So bad luck for me, bad luck for you!

I've enjoyed writing this – it's been fun.

If you're not careful I might end up writing more hanaru/ruhana more often O.o" Nyahahaha.

Reviews are always deeply appreciated!


End file.
